The unbearable lightness of Continuous Gravitational Waves: Advanced detection techniques for neutron stars and dark matter searches

by Dr Ornella Juliana Piccinni (Australian National University)

Tuesday 30 Jul 2024, 09:30 → 10:30 Europe/Madrid

IFAE Seminar Room + Zoom (Hybrid Seminar)

The current second-generation network of gravitational wave detectors has provided unprecedented leaps forward in our understanding of the universe during the first three observing runs. Despite these advances, we are only observing the tip of the iceberg of the potential scientific breakthroughs these detectors can offer. This talk will focus on the family of continuous gravitational waves, undetected signals, expected to be emitted mainly by spinning neutron stars. Extracting these elusive signals from background noise remains a challenging task from a data analysis perspective, yet an increasing number of scientific cases have emerged over the years. Specifically, new methods for utilizing Earth-based interferometers have been proposed, expanding their use to dark matter searches. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the latest scientific results in the field and the potential impact of these discoveries on astrophysics and our understanding of the universe.